Just in time for summer, the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox team up to help curb the violence affecting Chicago youth

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The Chicago Bulls have always been involved with the community, and on Wednesday, they announced an anti-violence initiative in partnership with the Chicago White Sox and the Youth Guidance – a leading provider of school-based programs serving 14,000 at-risk youth – B.A.M. (Becoming a Man) program.

The Bulls and White Sox have worked with B.A.M. since early 2012 and have provided youth in the program with mentoring opportunities, arena and ballpark tours, and organized career presentations, among other activities. Players, coaches and executives from both teams have participated in additional discussion sessions and also recorded video messages about the program’s core values that are used in discussion sessions and other programming.

Kenny Williams, executive vice president of the White Sox and Taj Gibson and Jimmy Butler of the Bulls, shot PSA’s which feature discussion session with young men from B.A.M. programs at Hyde Park Academy and Little Village Academy. The videos, released today, feature “discussion sessions” for Williams, Gibson and Butler to hear exactly what these young men face day-to-day, living in their respective communities.

“As sports organizations, the Bulls and White Sox are fortunate to work with groups like Youth Guidance, who are in our communities working with kids every day,” Bulls and White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in an official statement. “Our goal as a partner is to shine a light on organizations like Youth Guidance and to encourage young people who are looking for support to reach out to them and others in the community who are addressing the issue of violence.”